A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 eBook

SECTION XV.

An Expedition of Mr Banks to trace the River:
Marks of Subterraneous Fire: Preparations for
leaving the Island: An Account of Tupia.

On the 3d, Mr Banks set out early in the morning with
some Indian guides, to trace our river up the valley
from which it issues, and examine how far its banks
were inhabited. For about six miles they met
with houses, not far distant from each other, on each
side of the river, and the valley was every where
about four hundred yards wide from the foot of the
hill on one side, to the foot of that on the other;
but they were now shewn a house which they were told
was the last that they would see. When they came
up to it, the master of it offered them refreshments
of cocoa-nuts and other fruits, of which they accepted;
after a short stay, they walked forward for a considerable
time; in bad way it is not easy to compute distances,
but they imagined that they had walked about six miles
farther, following the course of the river, when they
frequently passed under vaults, formed by fragments
of the rock, in which they were told people who were
benighted frequently passed the night. Soon after
they found the river banked by steep rocks, from which
a cascade, falling with great violence, formed a pool,
so steep, that the Indians said they could not pass
it. They seemed, indeed, not much to be acquainted
with the valley beyond this place, their business lying
chiefly upon the declivity of the rocks on each side,
and the plains which extended on their summits, where
they found plenty of wild plantain, which they called
Vae. The way up these rocks from the banks
of the river, was in every respect dreadful; the sides
were nearly perpendicular, and in some places one
hundred feet high; they were also rendered exceeding
slippery by the water of innumerable springs which
issued from the fissures on the surface: Yet up
these precipices a way was to be traced by a succession
of long pieces of the bark of the hibiscus tiliaceus,
which served as a rope for the climber to take hold
of, and assisted him in scrambling from one ledge to
another, though upon these ledges there was footing
only for an Indian or a goat. One of these ropes
was nearly thirty feet in length, and their guides
offered to assist them in mounting this pass, but recommended
another at a little distance lower down, as less difficult
and dangerous. They took a view of this “better
way,” but found it so bad that they did not chuse
to attempt it, as there was nothing at the top to reward
their toil and hazard, but a grove of the wild plantain
or vae tree, which they had often seen before.